Reliable communications in FTL

ABSTRACT

Local-area networks based on high-bandwidth packet-switching technology, such as ATM, show a tremendous promise in reducing communication latencies and overheads. However, the lack of flow-control and reliable delivery in ATM networks requires the higher protocol layers to deal with cell loss or corruption. While it is possible to use TCP-based communications over ATM, the protocol mismatch results in a significant loss of the bandwidth. In addition to this, there is also a significant mismatch between the stream-based communication model provided by TCP, and the message-oriented communication model required by the parallel applications.This paper describes the design and implementation of a reliable messaging layer aimed at workstation clusters using broadcast and packet-switched local area networks.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.2 Network Protocols
          Subjects: Applications (SMTP, FTP, etc.)

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design
          Subjects: Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM); Packet-switching networks
      C.2.5 Local and Wide-Area Networks
          Subjects: High-speed (e.g., FDDI, fiber channel, ATM)

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Performance, Reliability, Theory